Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/597

 Popular Science Monf/tli/

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���The Motorcycle as a Valuable Asset in War Operations

FROM the arrival of the British Ex- peditionary Force in Belgium in the

late summer

of 1914 down /^ to the pres- ent time, the motorcycle has steadily gained in importance In different tranches of
 * hc military

service. Its use has not been re- stricted to the Allied armies. The best author- ities place the number

of motorcycles employed by the armies of the Central Powers, at the time of the Battle of the Marne, at 18,000. The British had at least 40,000 in service in the Spring of 1915, while the French had about 11,000. The Italian forces, up to the present, have 10,000 according to recent estimates.

It has been figured that more than 750,000 motorcycles have been in use for military purposes by the belligerent powers since July, 1914. This does not include those at present in the United States Army services, for prior to our en- trance in the Great War, the American Army did not have more than perhaps 150 machines in all.

Before the era of trench warfare on a large scale, the greater number of motorcycles in use were for despatch riding. By reason of its readi- ness for use at a moment's notice and its ability to thread its way among the heavy traffic behind the lines, the motorcycle superseded all other means employed

��Japanese motor vehicle experts studj' our motorcycle machine gun units and methods

���This little arrangement will save much trouble if you grow plants

��quarters, often long distances apart. Another important use of the motor- cycle in war is that of convoying supply trains from base to distributing stations along the front. The llexibility of the

motorcycle m a k e s it particularly valuable for such work. Motorcycles have also been used in con- siderable numbers, to convey picked rifle- men to points on the front where rein- forcements are needed, and whole battalions are sometimes transported in this manner.

Supplying Water to the Thirsty Root- lets of Potted Plants

THE device illustrated, once installed, will reduce to an absolute mini- mum the work of keeping the potted plants supplied with the required amount of water. It consists, in its main fea- ture, of small tubes containing sponge or some other water -ab- sorbing material, which protrudes from the tube at both ends. These tubes are inserted with their upper end through the hole in the bottom of the flower pots, so that the sponge reaches well up into the soil surrounding the roots, while the lower part of the tube with its cor- responding sponge end goes through the cover of the pan or receptacle, upon which the pots are arranged, and reaches into the water with which the pan is filled.

Capillary attraction carries the water up the tubes and the plants are thus

��for carrying despatches between head- thoroughly irrigated.

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